Piku

Movie Review (Hindi)

I enjoy movies directed by Shoojit Sircar. Especially because he teams up with an excellent scriptwriter, Juhi Chaturvedi, and voila! an excellent movie is created.

Piku has an interesting story and well defined characters. I have always appreciated Irrfan Khan's acting abilities. I find Amitabh Bachchan getting better with age. But the surprise package is Deepika Padukone. She was so much at ease, getting into the skin of Piku, that I really felt sorry for her and annoyed with her dad.

The humour built around the digestive tract was beyond compare and the toilet seat sitting on top of the car is something I am not likely to forget in a hurry. The last shot of Mr Bachchan touring Kolkata was a delight as was the huge ancestral house where the last scenes were shot.

But the movie is all about the journey from Delhi to Kolkata, Bhaskar Banerjee's (Amitabh) perception of life as it changes and Rana's (Irrfan) exasperation and growing fondness for Piku.

Looking forward to more such quirky though true to life stories...

Margarita With a Straw

Movie Review (Hindi)

This is a fairly simple coming of age story of a college going girl. Only tiny hitch -- she suffers from cerebral palsy. Now that tiny hitch is what makes the movie worth watching. Good thing I had read about Kalki Koechlin or I would want to know, since when did Bollywood audition young girls with cerebral palsy for roles in mainstream cinema. Whether this is mainstream is another question.

Director Shonali Bose has handled the actors so sensitively that every act seemed to evoke an emotional response. I asked myself, how many times have I given a thought to the real needs of  a person suffering from cerebral palsy? Answer - Never. That certainly does not mean they don't have a life as real as mine or that they are too mired with their disability.

I was really surprised that the censor board members for once decided to act like adults. Love the fact that young actors take the plunge with unorthodox roles. Both Kalki as Laila and Sayani as Khanum seemed quite comfortable in their roles as partners. Revathi who plays Kalki's mother is excellent as a loving parent, an angry parent, a forgiving and dying parent, all in one movie.

Here's to more Margaritas with or without straws!!

Movie Review (Hindi)

Byomkesh Bakshi

First, we must remember that the protagonist is a character fairly well known as a Bengali detective. He was quite famous in the forties. 

Second, many other directors have brought him to life with various degrees of success. 

Third, this edition was directed by Dibakar Banerjee.

The film opens into Calcutta of the 1940s with World War II happening in the background. The Japanese are next door trying to gain a foothold here. The British are the masters. The Chinese are smuggling in opium with impunity. The poor Indian might even forget he is in his own motherland. Very skillfully, the movie gets the audience into this milieu and then suddenly, as if in a fast moving roller coaster ride, we zip and zap through so many events and characters and violence and gore that it is hard to breathe. It is hard to dwell on what is going on in the detective’s mind. So, by the end of it, I was almost thankful that it ended. Just like Byomkesh himself, I too, am queasy about too much blood flowing all over.

But, however the director tried to portray his detective and tell his story, Sushant Singh Rajput came away with top honours.

Movie Review (English)

Whiplash

 A wonderful film depicting the myriad hues of grey of the creative world.

Andrew, a young jazz drummer played with aplomb by Miles Teller, passionate about the skill, wants to become the next Buddy Rich, joins a studio band led by conductor Fletcher, (JK Simmons, at his best). However, the instructor has a totally different take on how to push his students to further their skills. Fletcher is excruciatingly cruel in his words and actions and needs the students to be perfect or else he makes them bleed (literally!!) It can be called a revenge drama for the revenge exacted both by the struggling drummer and the teacher. 

Beautiful ending with some superb solo drumming.

Movie Review (Hindi)

P K

P K is what I expected a Raju Hirani movie to be. A scintillating plot, lots of gyan hidden in an interesting story and a top notch actor. His tight editing left no time to breathe.  There is no doubt that an alien would question our social mores and find this a strange world. 
Again, I was wondering if the alien, Amir Khan, had landed in any other country, life would have been simpler for him. But no, he had to come to India where the Mahatma was respected only on the rupee notes, where one got clothes to wear from dancing cars, where people refused to claim ownership of a packet of condoms, where certain people claimed to be in direct communication with God, and much much more. And not to forget our alien hero falling in love with Anushka Sharma, the latest among heroines to do a silly lip job.
A friend did feel that the Hindu religion could not be oversimplified so easily. The question of faith holds different connotations for different people. Whatever be the case, the film is quite a hit and Hirani got extra publicity  thanks to some extremist Hindu group demanding a ban on the movie. Did not work.
Looking forward to a sequel to this movie...

Movie Review (English)

Interstellar

Love you Christopher Nolan for bringing such a movie to the audience! The inhabitable Earth, the work to get man to a new home away from here and the use of travel through worm holes to reduce time travel.... only you could have thought of such a novel concept.

The other great thing about the movie is Matthew McConaughey. I have been rooting for this actor since his early days, and with the recent Dallas Buyers Club followed by True Detectives, only went on to vindicate my belief. Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain are really great actors. To be able to create space and its massiveness and beauty was also quite a feat!What a combination! Great film. 

Only goes to show that sky isn't the limit.

Movie Review (English)

Gone Girl

Does a movie do well because of a particular director only or also because the original novelist also wrote the screenplay? Gillian Flynn translated her book on to screen with love and imagination and thrill which was evident.
The twists in the story left me dazed. Ben Affleck as Nick and Rosamund Pike as Amy are really wonderful actors giving the right dose of chill on screen. When it began, which was the end actually, I was sure I had got the gist of the story. But every half hour I changed position and thought I had got the gist yet again. But when Amy returns, that was quite a master stroke. First she lets people think her husband murdered her. For this she prepared like a master artist, down to the last detail. Once out of the house, she prepares never to come back, preferring to watch her husband being hanged. But luck does not always favour the evil. So more twists follow and she returns. Poor hubby, he wanted a divorce long before, now he is caught in his suffocating marriage! The people will not let him leave her.

I enjoyed the movie. Highly recommended!!!.